I'll Be Honest

Sinner, Christ is willing to receive you. God commands you to repent. You do not have a right to go to hell. The only way anybody perishes and goes to hell is against God's revealed will. You have to trample the blood of Jesus Christ to go to hell and you have no right to do it. God forbids you from doing it. God commands you to repent that you might have life.

One of the most unique examples we have of faith in the Bible is the Syrophoenician woman. Everything in the Bible was recorded with a direct application for us. What can we learn from this example of the Syrophoenician regarding seeking the Lord, prayer, and faith?

The world is constantly seeking their own stuff, comfort, houses, food and drink, clothing, but one thing they aren’t seeking is God’s kingdom. This is not to be the case when it comes to the Christian; the Christian is told to seek first the kingdom of God. To seek first the kingdom of God is to do the things that God takes pleasure in and is glorified in. In this sermon we also learn some practical ways in which we can seek first the kingdom of God.

We shouldn’t give that person room to think it’s OK to be and to remain depressed or anxious because Scripture doesn’t. You want to love them through this, but not let them think they’re good being depressed or anxious.

When Paul was saved, he was no longer setting forth his own will, but he was now concerned with doing what Christ wanted him to do. Conversion brings true surrender, and your negotiating days are over. It is no more bargaining; instead, it is unconditional surrender.

Our view of sin shouldn't just consist of obvious, flagrant acts of immorality. There are also subtle sins that we need to put to death and make no provision for. And if there's one thing that should motivate us, we should think not what our sin does to us, but what our sin does to God. Do you deeply consider how your sin affects God? Or do you just casually confess your sin and say "I am sorry" and have no sense of the offense to the love of God?

Have you experienced great grief in your life when a loved one died who was not a believer? Or have you experienced the sweet sorrow that comes when a loved one dies and departs to be with Christ? Let us consider Isaiah 53, which speaks of Jesus as the man of sorrows. The older we get, the more we will know death as a community of believers in our local church.

Jesus Christ tells us that the 'eye' is the lamp of the body, and if the eye is good, it allows the whole body to be full of light. But Jesus also speaks of an 'evil eye'. What is a bad or evil eye? Why does Jesus use this type of language in the midst of speaking about money? In this message, we learn that a person's relationship with money shows the condition of their soul. We are told that we can't serve God and money...it is one or the other.

0:00 – Start of the sermon, Matthew 6.22
3:23 – Observation 1 – The context in which this is found.
6:07 – Observation 2 – The illustration is straightforward.
8:45 – Observation 3 – If your eye is healthy?
10:23 – Observation 4 – This is allegorical.
18:20 – Observation 5 – An evil eye?
32:53 – Observation 6 – How great is the darkness.
47:25 – Will you serve money or the Lord?
49:47 – Luke 16
1:04:02 – Closing prayer.

Matthew 26:44 says Jesus "went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again." Does it not seem strange that the Son of God would make a request of his Father multiple times, saying the same words? What should we make of this, especially considering Jesus' teachings on prayer?

When did Jesus realize he was God? Or did He always have self-knowledge of His divinity? My answer: He always knew He was God. The Person of Christ – Jesus, as He stood before the scribes and Pharisees, or as a young boy circumcised on the eighth day - always knew because His divine nature, which never stopped being omniscient, knew who He was. He knew His relationship to the Father and The Spirit and He has known it from all eternity.